pmaidhof

Stennis group leaves gulf after tensions ease By Philip Ewing - Staff writer Posted : Friday Apr 6, 2007 6:10:32 EDT The carrier John C. Stennis returned to the northern Arabian Sea to resume supporting NATO ground operations in Afghanistan, the Navy announced April 5, as tensions eased in the Persian Gulf after Iran released British 15 sailors and marines it had captured last month. The Navy made no mention of the British troops’ release in its announcement. Even when the Stennis, the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and their strike groups staged the largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Navy’s 5th Fleet commanders in Bahrain maintained it had nothing to do with Iran. The Stennis left its homeport of Bremerton, Wash., on Jan. 16, for a regularly scheduled deployment and began operating with coalition forces in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility Feb. 19. The carrier Nimitz, which deployed this week from San Diego, is set to relieve the Eisenhower. Find article here.

I think you should drop the "CV32" moniker and adopt "Cutter Wilson"!

Hey Tony...Congratulations. Like we have spoken about, the rules, at first glance are the makings of nightmares, but the game is an outstanding look at the higher end, not quite strategic, of operational warfare in the 80-90's middle east. One thing to remember, and that has been the devil to me is that aircraft counters are squadrons, ship counters are, for the most part, groups of ships in that type (I refuse to believe that a carrier is more than one, and believe that was the designer's intent), and that a game turn is 2 days. I look forward to discussing this gem with you, and maybe one day we can fight.

Anchorage Daily News April 4, 2007 Pg. B3 International Force To Fight Mock Battles Over Alaska In Exercise ANCHORAGE -- More than 1,300 military personnel are arriving in Alaska this week to take part in multinational combat training. Members of U.S., French and Australian air forces will take part in Red Flag-Alaska, a series of training exercises that include war games with allies and mock enemies. The event kicks off Thursday and continues through April 21 at Eielson and Elmendorf Air Force bases. The effort will involve at least 10 simulated combat missions involving actual flying times over Alaska terrain, Senior Master Sgt. Charles Ramey with the 13th Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii said Tuesday. The 13th Air Force oversees the planning and execution of Red Flag-Alaska. Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas is well known for the Red Flag concept -- which adds an enemy component -- that was expanded to Alaska last year, when it replaced the Cope Thunder exercises. More Red Flag exercises are scheduled for Alaska May 31-June 15 and July 12-27. -- The Associated Press

Sri Lanka rebel naval HQ destroyed: defence ministry 1 hour, 53 minutes ago Sri Lankan warplanes "bombed and completely destroyed" a key Tamil Tiger naval base Wednesday, the defence ministry said, drawing an immediate denial from the rebels. Israeli-built Kfir jets pounded what the defence ministry said was the "Sea Tiger headquarters" of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Puthukkudiyiruppu, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the coast, in the northeast of the country. The LTTE said there were no casualties from the bombing, which they said took place near the "White Pigeon" charity, which helps victims of landmines. "The bombs fell about 60 metres (yards) away from the White Pigeon building," LTTE spokeswoman Navaruban Selvy told AFP from the rebel political headquarters of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres north of here. "Fortunately there were no casualties, but the buildings were damaged," she added. In another attack in the same area, a military air raid killed two civilians and injured four others, according to the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website. There was no immediate word from the military about casualties. Sri Lankan warplanes have been routinely bombing suspected rebel positions in the island's northeast since April last year as part of a new wave of violence. "The base was completely destroyed, including its fuel storage facilities, which burst into massive flames," the ministry statement said. "The headquarter complex and many vehicles parked were also destroyed due to the strike." The Tiger spokeswoman said there were no rebel installations and described it as a civilian area. "It was not a Sea Tiger base. The sea is about 15 kilometres from where the bombs fell," she added. The Tiger rebels on Tuesday said that the air force had bombed the same area that day and wounded four civilians who were admitted to the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital. The air force suffered a humiliating attack last week when Tiger aircraft bombed its main base next to the island's only international airport and managed to escape unchallenged. The rebel craft were in the air for more than two hours. The latest military air raid came as the defence ministry announced that troops had shot dead six Tamil Tiger rebels in clashes in the embattled northern and eastern regions on Tuesday. Four members of the LTTE were shot dead in the Jaffna peninsula, the ministry said. Two more Tiger gunmen were shot dead in the eastern district of Ampara, the scene of a bus bombing on Monday that left 16 people dead, it added. There were no reports of casualties among troops. The Tamil rebels have waged a 35-year campaign for independence that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the latest upsurge of fighting that began in December 2005 despite a truce arranged in 2002. article here.

Japan, U.S., India to hold joint naval drill The Associated Press Posted : Tuesday Apr 3, 2007 9:32:29 EDT TOKYO — Japan, the U.S. and India will hold their first three-way naval drill later this month, a Japanese defense official said Tuesday, amid efforts by Tokyo to boost ties with the region’s naval powers. An Indian missile ship, two U.S. destroyers and three escort ships of Japan’s Self-Defense Force were among the vessels slated to take part in the joint exercise off Chiba prefecture on Japan’s eastern coast on April 16, according to defense official Yoshihito Fukabori. The drill, which Fukabori described as a goodwill exercise, will consist of basic maneuvers and is not designed to prepare against specific threats, he said. Japan and India promised to boost cooperation between their navies during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Tokyo in December. Tokyo is Washington’s top military ally in the region, hosting 50,000 U.S. troops. The 7th Fleet has 18 ships permanently forward deployed in Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for stronger ties between Japan, India, Australia and the U.S., which he dubs “Asia’s Democratic G3 plus America.” Find article here.

Iran to free seized British sailors Ahmadinejad says 15 sailors, marines to be released as a 'gift' to U.K. BREAKING NEWS The Associated Press Updated: 9:22 a.m. ET April 4, 2007 TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Wednesday that his government would release the detained 15 British sailors and marines as a gift to the British people. He pardoned the sailors and announced their release minutes after he gave medals of honor to the Iranian coast guards who intercepted the sailors and marines, saying Iran will never accept trespassing of its territorial waters. "On behalf of the great Iranian people, I want to thank the Iranian Coast Guard who courageously defended and captured those who violated their territorial waters, the president told a press conference. He then interrupted his speech and pinned medals on the chests of three Coast Guard officers involved in capturing the British sailors and marines in the northern Gulf on March 23. "We are sorry that British troops remain in Iraq and their sailors are being arrested in Iran," Ahmadinejad said. He criticized Britain for deploying Leading Seaman Faye Turney, one of the 15 detainees, in the Gulf, pointing out that she is a woman with a child. "How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don't they respect family values in the West?" he asked of the British government. Ahmadinejad regularly rails against the West, and the crisis has developed at a time when Iran is also embroiled in a row over its nuclear ambitions. The West says Iran wants atomic bombs but Tehran denies this. Please check back for more details on this developing story. article here.

New York Times April 4, 2007 Pg. 5 Seizure Of Britons Underlines Iran's Political Split By Michael Slackman CAIRO, April 3 — Behind the seesaw crisis of Iran’s detention of 15 British sailors and marines lies an internal Iranian struggle pitting radicals, aligned with the president, against more pragmatic officials concerned about the country’s growing isolation. The capture of the Britons initially showed the rising dominance of the president and his allies, specifically the Revolutionary Guards, whereas a move toward finding a diplomatic solution is a sign that the pragmatists are pushing back. Ali Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, is a leading pragmatist. On Tuesday, he spoke on state television and suggested that an end to the crisis could be in sight: “The British government has begun its diplomatic negotiations with Iran’s Foreign Ministry in a bid to resolve the issue of British sailors and marines. If these talks go ahead on a logical path, they can change the ongoing conditions and put an end to the dispute.” Conservative students from Imam Sadiq University, owned by the Revolutionary Guards, have condemned Mr. Larijani for saying there was no need to put the British sailors, who were seized March 23, on trial. “Releasing the British military personnel without a trial is doubtlessly a big error which the Iranian nation would never pardon,” they wrote in a statement carried by the ISNA news agency. “You must know that the Iranian nation hates the British government due to the history of the Old Fox’s anti-Iranian conspiracies,” the students wrote, using a nickname for Britain. “You should not back down in the face of the historical enemy of Iran.” The difference between the sides may be a matter more of style than substance, since both support Iran’s drive for nuclear technology and harbor deep distrust of Britain. The seesaw generally tips toward the side bringing the system its greatest benefits. When an attempt to build confidence in its nuclear program failed to win concessions from Europe, Iran grew confrontational and started its nuclear fuel enrichment program. When direct challenges to the West did not produce retaliation, support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was high. And when constant caustic remarks by Mr. Ahmadinejad appeared to be undermining support for Iran’s nuclear program, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pushed the president away from the nuclear issue. That emphasis on results may well explain the lowering of voices coming from Tehran. “Confronting an aggressor is of course a necessity and national glory,” wrote Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a former vice president, in his blog, Webneveshteha.com. Mr. Abtahi, who served under Muhammad Khatami, a reform-minded president, wrote, “But it will be more in Iran’s interest than Britain’s if this crisis is over by diplomatic means as soon as possible.” It is only in the past few days that critics of the president have felt confident enough to speak out, no matter how tempered the criticism. “What they are doing with the sailors will not benefit Iran and it will even worsen the international conditions for the Islamic Republic,” said Mohammad-Reza Jalaipour, a sociologist and former government official, in a telephone interview. The divide over the current crisis with Britain also seems to expose divisions within each political approach. President Ahmadinejad has not had the support of so-called hard-liners in Parliament since shortly after his election in 2005. Parliament initially challenged the president on his selection of ministers, and has often criticized his budget. It appears to be more a conflict driven by so-called hard-liners within the Revolutionary Guards, who are aligned with the president and who have seen their political and economic influence grow since his election. When he took office, Mr. Ahmadinejad moved to create a new political class, relying mostly on former members of the Revolutionary Guards, analysts in Iran said. He turned to men whose views were shaped during their service in the Guards in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, men who hewed very closely to the ideological ideas of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and were determined to roll back the modest social and political reforms of President Khatami, which they saw as a dilution of the revolution. “They have a political and security role, huge financial resources and assets that are not listed in the country’s budget, and manage the country’s nuclear program,” said Mehdi Chehade, a professor of political science at the Lebanese University in Beirut, who often writes on Iran. “These elements combined helped these ultra-conservatives emerge as today’s main power in Iran.” The president has traveled around the country ordering up local construction jobs, then giving the work to the engineering branch of the Guards. Experts in Iran said the Guards could not handle all the work and would then subcontract the projects out, taking a percentage for simply passing the job off. Shortly after the eight British sailors and seven marines were seized in what Iran says were its territorial waters, and what Britain says were Iraqi waters, it quickly became clear that the Guards were in command. Foreign Ministry officials said privately in Tehran that they were not consulted and at one point had no idea even where the sailors and marines were being detained. The Guards, unlike the army, have a primarily ideological mandate as the guardian of the revolution. They were created by Ayatollah Khomeini shortly after the revolution in 1979 to serve as the ideological muscle behind a system looking to secure itself while unsure of the loyalty of the police and the military. That initial mandate has for decades allowed the Guards to operate free from most political oversight and to evolve as one of the most independent centers of power, loyal only to the supreme leader. The Guards established their own weapons procurement system and their own army, air force and navy. In 2000 they was estimated to have a force of about 120,000 divided into about 15 divisions, working in 11 regions around the country. They also see their mandate as including the export of revolutionary ideas, and helped to build Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in southern Lebanon. When Mr. Ahmadinejad was first elected nearly two years ago, Iranian political analysts said his victory did not represent the rise of hard-liners as much as it did the militarization of the system of governance. It is unclear if the president or the supreme leader knew about the seizure of the Britons in advance. But since it occurred, it has been used to rally Mr. Ahmadinejad’s base at a time when his support seemed to be fraying. The president, elected on a platform of economic populism, promising a redistribution of the state’s vast oil wealth, has been sharply criticized for failing to deliver on his economic promises.

Boston Globe April 4, 2007 US Is Said To Advise Militants On Raids In Iran By Reuters WASHINGTON -- The United States has been secretly advising and encouraging a Pakistani militant group that has carried out a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran, ABC News reported yesterday, citing US and Pakistani intelligence sources. The raids have resulted in the deaths or capture of Iranian soldiers and officials, ABC reported. The group, members of the Baluchi tribe, operates from Pakistan's gas-rich province of Baluchistan, just across the border from Iran, the report said. The only relationship with the group that US intelligence acknowledges is cooperation in tracking Al Qaeda figures in that part of Pakistan, ABC reported. The group, called Jundullah, has produced videos showing Iranian soldiers and border guards it says it has captured, ABC said. ABC cited US government sources it did not identify as saying the United States does not provide direct funding for the group but has maintained close ties to its leader, Abd el Malik Regi, since 2005. A CIA official said the account was not accurate. Regi claims to have personally executed some of the Iranian captives, the ABC News report said. "He is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant. The group took credit for an attack in February that killed at least 11 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on a bus in the Iranian city of Zehedan, ABC said. According to the report, Iranian state television last month broadcast what it said were confessions by those responsible for the bus attack. They reportedly admitted to being members of Jundullah and said they had been trained for the mission at a secret location in Pakistan, ABC said. ABC cited Pakistani government sources as saying the secret campaign against Iran was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February. Cheney spokeswoman Megan McGinn said, "We don't discuss conversations between the vice president and foreign leaders."

Good article Brad. A love the sarcastic quote on page 6; "A Syrian general, upon being told by his soviet patrons that he already had the best Soviet surface-to-air missiles, replied that what he really needed were some good surface-to-aircraft missiles!"

Navy awaits laser minesweeping By William Matthews - Staff writer Posted : Monday Apr 2, 2007 21:16:54 EDT Sweeping along at 60 knots, a Navy helicopter equipped with a blue-green laser will soon be able to detect mines in water deeper than 40 feet. Using data collected during the sweep, the helicopter will return to the area and use a second, more focused laser to zero in on the mines, then destroy them with specially designed 30-millimeter supercavitating bullets. The new Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) and its companion Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS) promise to dramatically speed up mine detection and clearing of floating and near-surface mines, and at the same time make the process safer.here. “This takes the man out of the minefield,” said Gary Humes, program manager in the Navy’s mine warfare program office. “It’s a capability we do not have today at all.” Current mine detection and clearance sometimes is as primitive as posting two petty officers with binoculars on either side of a ship’s bow to spot mines. Beside them stand sailors with rifles, ready to explode the mines, Humes said. The Navy also uses a variety of mine detectors and detonators towed slowly through the water by helicopters, and it has a fleet of mine-countermeasures ships that attack mines with divers and remotely piloted underwater vehicles. All are considerably slower than ALMDS and RAMICS are expected to be — eventually. The mine-detection system is scheduled to be ready for use in 2009, the mine destruction system a year later. The need for better mine-detection and -clearing capabilities has been clear since the Iran-Iraq War spilled over into the Arabian Gulf to become the tanker wars of 1984-88. Mines were a problem again during the first Gulf War in 1990 and 1991. Since then, the Navy has worked on a variety of helicopter-based mine-detection systems. The ALMDS and RAMICS systems are the product of more than seven years of development by Northrop Grumman. Dave Stafford, a Northrop vice president and director of the company’s maritime and tactical systems, described the two high-tech systems during an April 2 press briefing. “We’ve chased a bit of science here and come up with a gem,” Stafford said. The mine-detecting laser is encased in an eight-foot pod that is attached to the side of an MH-60S helicopter. The laser fires “hundreds of pulses per second” to collect information about what is in the water, Stafford said. Exactly how deep it can see is classified, but it is deep enough to protect all Navy ships to keel depth, he said. The laser is fired into the water, and cameras in the pod capture the reflections to create images, which are stored in digital form. When the helicopter returns to its ship, the data is transferred to computers, which display it for analysts to examine and help to identify mines. It requires “massive computing” power, Stafford said. Once the mines are identified, the helicopter is outfitted with the RAMICS system. Reconfiguration takes about four hours, he said. RAMICS uses the same type of blue-green laser, but this one is much more narrowly focused. Using Global Positioning System coordinates, the helicopter goes back to the minefield, relocates the mine and homes in on it. The system then aims a 30-millimeter gun that fires bullets designed to travel accurately through water. Instead of being diverted off course by water, as ordinary bullets are, these supercavitating bullets create an air bubble, or “cavitation envelope,” around themselves and travel in that through the water to accurately hit their target, Humes said. Mine clearing could be done even faster if detection could be followed immediately by destruction, but that’s not yet possible, Humes said. “We’re talking about terabytes of data,” too much to be quickly analyzed or even transmitted from the tracking helicopter to a ship or another helicopter, he said. That’s the next step, but it’s likely years away. The first pod, delivered to the Navy in January, is the product of a $35.7 million contract for two pods. Once in production, the pods should cost about $4.5 million apiece, Humes said. Northrop Grumman says the Navy plans to buy 45 pods by 2018 for $255 million. The RAMICS system cost $36.9 million to develop, according to Northrop. It is expected to cost about $5 million per system, Humes said. Find article

Thanks Brad, the OOB information will save me quite a bit of time.

The K-130 covetter, the scourge of my Harpoon4.1 LCS trials.

Watched it again to make sure the link worked...found myself humming "danger zone" when towards the end the flight deck crew is walking through the catapult steam.

Flight Quarters...Flight Quarters Here is a 30 second video of flight deck operations from the recently completed naval exercises in the PG. Found it on Reuters.com reuters video

U.S. winds up biggest war games in Gulf since 2003 Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:52AM EDT MANAMA (Reuters) - The U.S. navy said on Thursday it had ordered an aircraft carrier to the Gulf to replace one of two patrolling the region, as the United States winds down naval war games on Iran's doorstep. The Nimitz carrier strike group will sail from San Diego for the Gulf on Monday, a navy spokesman told Reuters, to replace the Dwight D. Eisenhower, as tensions mount between Iran and the West over captured British troops and Iran's nuclear program. "She (the Nimitz) will deploy to the Gulf region. She is the relief for Eisenhower, who leaves and she replaces her," Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis said by telephone from Naval Headquarters in Washington. Strike groups typically include four or five frigates and destroyers and a submarine. "You are looking at the early part of May that you would have the transition. It would be without any overlap. There is no plan to overlap them at all," he added. The Eisenhower and fellow carrier John C. Stennis took part in this week's U.S. war games, the largest in Gulf waters since 2003, when the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq. The drills, which included anti-submarine, anti-surface and mine warfare drills, end on Thursday. For the first time since the Iraq invasion four years ago, two U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed in the Gulf. Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant-Commander Charlie Brown said there were currently no plans for more. "We do not expect to have three carriers in the Gulf region ... but we cannot talk about future needs or future operations," he said. Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the U.S. not to aggravate tensions with Iran with its naval presence in the Gulf. IRANIAN EXERCISES The Fifth Fleet has said a decision to hold the exercises was taken within the last two weeks, and planning for the drills accelerated as tensions mounted between Iran and the West over Iran's nuclear program and its capture of British sailors. Spokesmen for the fleet, based in the Gulf island state of Bahrain, have said the exercises were meant to reassure allies of the U.S. commitment to security and stability in the region. Only U.S. ships took part in the maneuvers. On Wednesday, Iranian state media quoted Ali-Reza Tangsiri, a Revolutionary Guards navy commander, as saying Iran, which last Thursday also started a week of naval exercises in the Gulf, was monitoring foreign warships closely. "Based on our forces' observations (U.S.) claims ... about a big American maneuver in this region are not true," he said. In February Iran said it had tested missiles that could "sink big warships" in the Gulf. Britain, which maintains its 15 sailors were within Iraqi waters when captured by Iranian forces, wants U.N. Security Council members to endorse a statement that would "deplore" their detention. Find article here.

By Jonathan Saul JERUSALEM, April 1 (Reuters) - Iran is making defensive preparations for what it fears will be a U.S. military attack this summer, Israel's military intelligence chief said on Sunday. Major-General Amos Yadlin also told the Israeli cabinet that Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas and Syria believed they could be targeted in any U.S.-initiated war against Iran, an Israeli government official said, briefing reporters on his remarks. "What we are seeing is their preparation for the possibility of war in the summer. My assessment is that they are defensive preparations for war," Yadlin was quoted as saying, referring to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. The government official said Yadlin spoke about Iranian fears of a U.S., not an Israeli, offensive. The official gave no details about the type of military preparations Yadlin said Iran was making to meet any U.S. attack. "We are closely monitoring these preparations because (Iran, Syria and Hezbollah) could misinterpret various moves in the region," Yadlin said, according to the official. In Washington on Thursday, U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the United States was "convinced diplomacy is the way to proceed" to curb Iran's nuclear programme. Burns told the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee that Washington did not believe conflict with Tehran was inevitable. The U.N. Security Council widened sanctions against Iran on March 24 after it defied a second deadline to stop enriching uranium, a process Tehran says will yield solely electricity but world powers fear could be used to build atomic weapons. Washington and London also accuse Iran of supporting insurgents fighting their forces in Iraq. Find article here.

Hi Ralf, Unfortunately, I do not possess that book. I also unsuccessfully searched (online) for it in my local and county libraries for you. If you are really interested , I could perhaps check with the US Merchant Marine Academy - which is not too far from where I work.

Some examples from Desert Shield module: At the beginning of each turn, there is a Global Political Phase. Initiative Player rolls a D10. If a 10 is rolled, re-roll the D10 and apply the results per the below Random Politcal Events. 1. Israel supports US by sending three air units (1x F-15, 2x F-16). It is a double edged sword because 5 UN points* are accumulated each turn the Israeli forces participate. 2. Jordan covertly breaks the embargo, increase the Iraqi supply point reinforcement by 10 points per turn for the remainder of the game. 3. Iraq successfully launches a prototype Tammuz2 ICBMand strikes the US mainland. 25 UN points* are awarded, and the US automatically has nuclear release authority. 4. USSR sends advisors to help US deal with the Iraqi chemical warfare threat. 5. USSR enters war on US side. 6. Terrorists succeed in executing a suicide car/truck bomb on USCENTCOM HQ. HQ takes one hit. 7-9 Iran covertly attempts to break the oil embargo and declares a jihad. Conduct one terrorist attack over those already allowed by scenario special rule. Iraqi player gains control of former Iranian oil tankers, 3x Silkworm SSM. 10. Same as 7-9 except deploy Iranian air and naval units in support of Iraqi player. UN Negotiation Points reresent an abstrat value whereby the world would become frightened enough that it would allow Iraq to keep what they illegally gained, instead of facing the consequences of the war continuing. Once a 100pt threshold is reached Iraq has won. Points are also granted for Iraqi tankers which make it through, and in the event that tanks, in general, suffer hits in the Persian Gulf. Some thoughts for a current scenario. UN/World Opinion. Pakistan Coup. East Asia Crisis - Taiwan or Korea. US loses a carrier. Kurdish Insurrection causes Iranian player to divert a division, perhaps a corps. Iran detonates a nuclear warhead. Iran strikes at Israel. Israel strikes at Iran. Major Terrorist Attack in US Terrorist attack on USCENTOMHQ in theater. Thoughts?

This is an invitation to everyone here to come up with suggestions of global or strategic implications that would halt, or severely limit a 2007+ conflict in the Persian Gulf. The United Nations comes to mind, as well as a collapse of will in the Gulf Cooperation Council as a whole or independent members, and/or conflicts or other crisis’ occurring out of theater such as a PRC-Taiwan or North Korea-South Korea situations heating up. Even the US congress could potentially cut off funding Each Gulf Strike edition had it’s own diplomatic or global event phase where at the beginning of a game turn a D10 was rolled, on the result of a “1â€, another D10 is rolled and the players would consult the chart and implement it’s ramifications. UN calls for a cease fire, the Soviets intervene, the western allies intervene, etc. I intend to implement what is finally agreed upon into my gaming. Thanks

I was under the "most likely uninformed" impression that there was a move afoot to re-deploy (how fashionable was that word a few months back), much of the force on Okinawa to Guam - both bowing to host nation pressures and placing these forces at arms length from those who may like to do them harm with little to no warning.

hehe, I violated the cardinal rule, and did not break out my map.

Brad, very interesting read so far. I look forward to the entire report. The subject matter ties in with your earlier post about the feeling over the Belgrano. It's a rhetorical question I suppose, but will the US population have the same reaction if this anti-access strategy works. Will it be 'trechery" (sp?) in the eyes of Americans, if the PRC strikes at satellites to blind us and impede our communications, diplomatically isolate us so our "allies" choose to forbid us from using their host-nation bases, and conducting TBM strikes or commando-type actions on traditional staging areas such as Guam and Okinawa? What a continued decent, not a complete free fall yet I hope, from grace if we allow ourselves from being so diplomatically isolated that "allies" would abandon us.

To me, sounded like sour grapes all along. A sovereign nation launches a military operation, then cries foul when they suffer a loss? All the complaining that the act was outside of an arbitrarily set exclusion zone, that the ship may or may not have be steaming away from the "action". The belligerents must remember that one country started the war, and another voluntarily reacted. The UK could have accepted the loss of that far-off, left-over colony as a fait de compli - maybe that's what the Argentinians were hoping for who knows. However, the fact that the British made not secret of the fact that they were coming, the Argentinians should not have become complacent, whether on the islands, on the mainland, or their ships at sea. Just my opinion.